What does Bart say? – A Theme Park blog!

Now that the parks have closed their doors again for their winter break, I think it is a good time to look back on the past season. What are my highs and lows of the past season? You can read about it in. What Bart says about… the 2024 season!

Before the new theme park season begon, I made regular visits to the Efteling. Whereas many amusement park lovers prefer to visit the Efteling more often, I was happy to visit another amusement park. Plopsaland de Panne was the first amusement park I visited when the new season begon. The short wait times meant lots of re-rides, and that is no punishment for a park that features the Ride to Happiness. 

Plopsaland de Panne is not the only amusement park I had visited in Belgium. Bellewaerde was high on my list for this season with the opening of Amazonia and the new roller coaster Brazilian Buggies. I was lucky enough to experience Amazonia between its closures. Unique attraction, but not worth a long wait, and Brazilian Buggies, fun for the credit. But is it worth a trip back to Bellewaerde? No. It’s not a rollercoaster with repeat value.

In June, I left for an amusement park trip to the UK. Before the trip I had never travelled by plane before. Exciting? Definitely! But I am glad I dared to take the step to make this trip. My friend Matt (Matt, Coastergiant on Youtube – if you like theme park vlogs definitely worth a look) planned the trip (thanks again Matt!). On our trip we visited several parks: Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Flamingo Land, Legoland Windsor, Chessington World of Adventures, Thorpe Park, Alton Towers and Drayton Manor. Besides visiting the many new theme parks, I also met a lot of new enthusiasts, what a lovely community. Everyone is very welcoming and open, it really made me feel like home. 

In November I flew back to the UK for the Blackpool Pleasure Beach closing weekend. A weekend where everyone comes together to celebrate the last days of the season. I didn’t know what to expect… but what a super weekend it was! Less sleep, the requisite drinks (haha), and a long journey, but it was well worth it. Would I do this again next year? Definitely. 

England was not the only (theme park) trip I took this year. In August, Jasper and I took a road trip to Germany. During our road trip, we visited several theme parks, including Freizeitpark Thule, Hansa-Park and Heide-Park and one of the biggest fairs of Germany, the Hamburg Dom. Hansa-Park and Heide-Park had been high on my bucket list for a while, and I’m happy that I can tick off both parks from my bucket list. Hansa-Park is a very nicely laid-out amusement park, with some top roller coasters. Schwur des Kärnan and Flucht von Novgorod are the top rides of this park. Highlander, a 120-metre high freefall tower, was disappointing. I’m not a fan of heights so going up the tower was scary, but the drop was disappointing.  Height is not always better. Scream in Heath-Park for example, is a lower drop tower but has a much heftier drop. 

Heide-Park was somewhat disappointing, the park is great to up your credit count. But it could use some charm at some parts of the parks. I probably will not visit the park anytime soon if there is no new coaster credit to achieve. It was very quiet at the time we were in the park, and we had 2 days in the park. We used the second day mainly for re-rides and left for home on time. 

The 2024 season in a few sentences, 91 new credits, new friendships and a lot of memories that will stay with me forever. Thanks for a great season, let’s hope the next season will be as great as this one, thank you! ❤️

Bart